The NSF-CBMS Regional Conference in the Mathematical Sciences ``Statistical Inference from Genetic Data on Pedigrees'' will feature, as Principal Lecturer, Elizabeth Thompson of the University of Washington, who will deliver ten keynote lectures that expose attendees to methods for using state-of-the-art statistical techniques to analyze human genetic data. The areas covered by Professor Thompson's lectures will lie at the confluence of the fields of statistics, probability, genetics and molecular biology, and the intrinsic interdisciplinarity of the project will make it particularly attractive to statisticians, mathematicians, and quantitative biologists alike. Professor Thompson is a renowned researcher with an impressive array of key publications in statistical genetics. She is widely respected as a lecturer, having recently delivered two keynote addresses at the Joint Statistics Meetings. Her lectures will form the basis of the monograph ``Meioses, Pedigrees and Populations: Modern Inference Methods for Human Genetic Data'' that will be published by the Institute for Mathematical Statistics. A diverse group of attendees will attend the conference, which will be held July 19--23 1999 at Michigan Technological University in Houghton: present will be established researchers and new entrants in several fields; women, minorities, graduate students and REU-undergraduates; persons from non research-intensive schools and persons wishing to enter the area. Participants will be housed in dormitory rooms or university apartments, and special attention will be paid to post-conference interaction and collaboration. Several organized social activities will be planned during the conference. The overall objective of the conference is to facilitate the learning of incisive statistical methodology in a contextual fashion, with a continual focus on a vitally important biological application.
